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Announcing the first PLoS Progress Report

Today, we’re delighted to share our first Progress Report with you which has the theme of “Liberating research. Accelerating science”. We would encourage you to share it with your colleagues, friends and family so that we can spread this information.

Reading it will tell you more about our story, our success and our vision for the future through the voices of many people who have helped us to get where we are today. In it you will find:

Discussions about important questions such as:

Five years after entering the publishing arena, what does the PLoS financial picture tell us? How will PLoS and OA affect STM (science, technology and medical) publishing in the future?

Examples of PLoS articles that have really changed outcomes on the ground: for example some that have improved global health, liberated research, helped scientists advance their careers, protected privacy, unearthed fossils, accelerated science or even changed policy.

Many personal messages from our supporters: “The innovation of PLoS was high-quality; open-access science. The innovation of PLoS ONE in some ways, is even larger because it allows radical reorganizations of scientific knowledge, which can enable new discoveries.” Dr Jesse Ausubel, Director, Program for the Human Environment, The Rockefeller University.

Impressive statistics about the size of the PLoS community: 13,000 peer-reviewers. 26,000 authors, 1,400 board members and millions of unique visitors in 2008.

Information about our diverse portfolio of journals: why each exists and what they do for the organization and the audiences that they serve.

The reasons why PLoS still needs the financial support of our donors: to fuel OA advocacy and fund innovation in new online tools and how you can help us.

Our current financial statement: posted here ahead of our 990 filing on Guidestar, a commonly used resource for finanical information about non profits.

The team: Board of Directors, Senior Staff and Editorial Boards.

Although this report is as transparent and as complete as we could make it, a single document can never do justice to all our dedicated staff, supporters, authors, users and friends who make PLoS such a vibrant organization. To all of them, I would like to say a big thank you, without you we could not have come this far, this quickly.